Story of the Day

Why does Obama, and the Democrat party, hate American workers so much?!?!?!?!?! This information needs to go viral. Emphasis mine. “Looks like the Pen and Phone theory of governance still hasn’t gone out of style. Ian Smith at The Hill has uncovered another “secret memo” coming from the White House that lays out some more improvements to the immigration system which are going to vastly increase the number of coveted work cards for immigrants (including the “undocumented” kind as you’ll see below) which will be in circulation if it goes through. (Snip)

So all you need is an ID card and an employer who isn’t spending all of their time doubling as an ICE agent. And isn’t it convenient that California has been issuing drivers licenses and state ID cards to “undocumented immigrants” faster than they do to citizens? Then all one needs to do is wait for a year without being caught and deported and… poof! You get an EAD [Employment Authorization Document] card and an essentially permanent get out of jail free card. Oh, and if you read section 2 of the memo above, it applies to spouses and children as well.

This scheme should, by all rights, be under attack from both the Left and the Right. Labor unions should hate it because it’s going to flood the market with tens of thousands of additional unskilled workers competing for jobs. Conservatives should oppose it for obvious reasons. But it probably doesn’t require any action on the part of Congress to do it because… the pen and the phone.” New White House rules change to flood the market with work cards for immigrants

Other News That You Might Have Missed

Immigration

Nightmares. “There’s a reason the Democrats are such ardent supporters of open borders. It has helped give them an impervious floor of support very close to the 50-yard line in American politics, and under the current trajectory, they will easily cross that critical 51% marker of a permanent electoral majority. (Snip)

Maybe unbridled immigration will not doom conservatives in this country after all. Perhaps, you might think, California is an aberration. If we only put on our best Jack Kemp message of optimism we will court newly naturalized immigrants in droves and recruit them to the cause of constitutional republicanism and traditional values.

Dream on.

In addition to numbers and time, the origin of immigrants matters in the social equation when determining the likelihood of assimilation. People who come in large numbers from Latin America and parts of Asia and Africa, on average, are not used to the same political system as, say, individuals who come here from Canada. Not only have we naturalized record numbers of new immigrants, almost all of the newly naturalized immigrants have come and will continue to come from third world countries that are steeped in Marxism and liberation theology.” REPORT: Limitless Immigration Creating Permanent Democrat Majority

Education

Our schools are failing our students because they care more about teaching the Leftist point of view than they care about the basics. “This semester I am teaching developmental reading at a local community college. This means that most of the students are reading at sixth-grade reading level. Their writing skills are, at best, very basic. Below is a sample of an unedited paragraph (replete with errors) that a student was asked to write after having been taught the meanings of autocratic, demolish, debilitating, hyperthermophile, perpetrators, and plaque. You will note that while the student incorporated the words into her paper, she does not really understand the meaning or the nuances of the words.

In the Atlantic Ocean there are tons of Hyperthermophiles hidden in the ocean. These plants often are by the waters or in it. Some sea creatures around this area are debilitating because of the warm temperatures. The plants have to be in cold waters where it’s below zero to stay alive. They will demolish into the ocean once they are gone. These pants will go into the colder parts of the ocean if they can make it. The marine biologist can be autocratic when picking these plants. They are just so rare in the U.S. that they don’t want these Hyperthermophiles to go instinct.” (Snip)

The hoax being perpetuated in the educational establishment should be a source of deep shame. To knowingly push unprepared students into college only leads to frustration for students and instructors alike. It is not just critical thinking that is sorely lacking. It is intellectual curiosity that is absent in most college campuses where I teach. Yet, this intellectual curiosity is a key ingredient that “sparks science, art, all kinds of innovation.” What, then, does this portend for our country?

When vile leftist propaganda is added to the mix, we see the continuing diminishment of our once remarkable spirit of learning, discovery, and innovation. What will be created, painted, written, or invented if students passively sit and never ask a question while their minds are filled with a hateful philosophy more commonly understood by decent people as unvarnished racism?” The Ivory Tower Continues to Crumble

Inflation

Tell it like it is Mr. Wynn! Has anyone been to a grocery store lately? “If you take real inflation, and you’ve got to count energy and food and all that stuff, real inflation is much higher than they say it is,” Wynn said. “My employees’ take home pay, in spite of the increases we give them, their paychecks are 90-cent paychecks, 90 cents on the dollar. It’s very difficult for the middle class in America to keep up because of the inflationary pressure and the devaluation of the dollar.”

Wynn gave Ralston a quickie lesson in economics 101 so he could understand the dilemma faced by the average American. It starts with the overwhelming national debt.

Presidential Politics

Do Democrats even understand where their party is taking our country? “It [the Democrat presidential debate] wasn’t a total waste of time though. We know now there is no longer a moderate wing of that party. Webb, the last moderate Democrat standing, has no chance. The party of Hillary and Sanders stands for economic retribution against executives (except for allies like Andrew Cuomo, former head of HUD, Citigroup’s Robert Rubin or Senator Jon Corzine, of course) a public-sector economy paid for by you which will further strangle the economy and isolationism, which brings the wolves already invited to the front porch by Obama ever closer to our door.” The Democrats Cross Epees

Carter wasn’t a radical, “I hate America” Leftist.“This generational gap between Carter’s “Old Left” politics and Obama’s more radical “New Left” ideas helps explain why Carter would be willing to change his tune while Obama might prove more obstinate. It also points to two different priorities between the two presidents.

“While Carter feared a ‘crisis of confidence’ on the part of the American people in America, Obama rejects the idea of American exceptionalism or the basic goodness of the American idea,” Portteus argued. Carter valued America and genuinely wanted to promote the interests of the United States, while Obama followed “the New Left’s rejection of western and American civilization and its embrace of the ‘other,’” the professor alleged.

In a perhaps even more contentious statement, Portteus added, in no uncertain terms, that “Obama is openly contemptuous of Republican constitutional government.”

“He has contempt for government by consent when the people do not consent to the policies he believes should be implemented,” the professor explained. Obama “is completely uninterested in adhering to the forms of the Constitution, to the point of being incredulous that anyone would care about those forms.” Is Obama as Bad as Carter? No, He’s Worse

This is the same question I keep asking. “The minute the feds raided me, I was persona non grata. Only an idiot would have kept his insurance in my company. What fools are still planning to vote for Hillary?

When the feds walked into my office, I knew I was done. Unfortunately, Democrats want to hang on past their usefulness. They can’t take failure gracefully.

The Clintons talk about a right-wing conspiracy when they are a left-wing corruptocracy. Hillary belongs in jail for lying about sending and receiving classified material on her private email account.

She is guilty of either a crime or gross negligence. And gross negligence when it comes to classified information is automatically a crime.

Before going to jail, Hillary should give up running for president the way I gave up my business. Her continued presence in the presidential race makes the Democrats look like a bunch of fools.” How is Hillary still in the game?

Democrats mostly live in a dream world from which they will never wake up. “Regulation: Hillary Clinton claimed that California’s paid family leave mandate hasn’t hurt business and job growth, and ought to be expanded nationwide. But a recent study shows that she’s living in a statist dream world. (Snip)

The Golden State was the first to mandate paid family leave, launching a program in 2004 that lets workers take up to six paid weeks a year to care for a newborn child or other family members. California’s family leave regulation is now the most generous — and burdensome — in the nation.

“California’s regulatory policy makes it more difficult and more costly for current and potential entrepreneurs,” said study author Wayne Winegarden, a senior fellow at PRI and a partner in the consulting firm Capitol Economic Advisors. “These higher costs reduce the amount of business growth.”

And payroll employment growth. The 123-page report shows California’s payrolls continue to trail other states. State job growth significantly lagged even the subpar national average between 2002 and 2011.

Clinton might also want to talk to CEOs recently joining the corporate exodus from California.

By relocating its corporate headquarters and distribution facilities — and 350 workers — to the Dallas area, coffee maker Farmer Bros. expects to save $15 million a year. Farmer follows Toyota, which moved its U.S. sales and marketing headquarters to Texas, as well as Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems, eBay, Occidental Petroleum and RifleGear. Nissan recently bailed to Tennessee — which like Texas doesn’t require employers to pay for family leave.” Hillary’s Wrong: California’s Paid Family Leave Mandate Hurting Small Business, State

Will he or won’t he? “And that’s where Joe Biden comes in. Biden is the Obama guy who isn’t really an Obama guy — he was elected to the U.S. Senate when Barack Obama was eleven years old. He had a life and a political career before he hitched his wagon to the teapot messiah from Chicago, and though his is not the keenest mind in politics, he surely gets the game: If he gets in, he is to be reduced to a purely instrumental condition, an enabler of Obama’s last and most important political play, a placeholder keeping the chair warm until Obama’s people have settled on a real president. Biden doesn’t seem like a man who minds being used so long as the deal is a square one, but he is also old and tired and has recently suffered the loss of a child, which must be nearly unbearable. There are three possible outcomes for him: He could get in the race, win, and become a figurehead. He could get in the race, lose, and retire with the stink of defeat upon him.

A potential problem for the Republican presidential nominee. “We’re not talking about huge minorities of the GOP in any of these scenarios, but you wouldn’t need huge numbers to be decisive in a close election. And Jim Webb, as I said last week, is an attractive heterodox candidate. For everything there is to dislike about him, like ObamaCare for illegals, there are things to like — war hero, former secretary of the Navy under Reagan, willing to buck the left on some cultural hot buttons like affirmative action, and supportive of a more modest foreign policy abroad while also astutely criticizing Obama for weakness. He’s not an ideal candidate for any Republican, but people eager to cast a protest vote aren’t looking for perfection. They’re looking for one or two very appealing qualities in a third-party candidate that they can seize on and glorify as a reason to prefer that guy to the major-party nominees. Webb has lots of appealing qualities.” Not good: Jim Webb considering independent run for president

Socialism

Our two best representations of socialism in the US are public education and the VA. Yes, by all means, lets have more of it. And from the comments: “Socialism: “if somebody’s got more stuff than you, just vote to take it away from them.” “What you’re seeing here among Dems (and independents) isn’t a strong swing towards redefining themselves as socialist, I think, so much as it is the term “socialist” losing any stigma it may have held. Around 20 percent of the party, likely the self-defined “progressive” left, is comfortable being thought of as socialist. A 14 percent rump in the center disdains the label. Everyone else is indifferent. Perhaps that was inevitable now that we’re 25 years removed from the dissolution of the USSR, with memories of revolutionary socialism having faded and been replaced with smiley-face domestic initiatives like “free” college for everyone and happy talk at Democratic debates about Denmark (which, actually, is less socialist in some ways than the United States is). Good news: 49% of Democrats have favorable opinion of socialism, 37% have favorable opinion of capitalism

Based on the article above, they are well on their way. “One lesson we have learned over the years is that the Left never gives up. No defeat is permanent. Alger Hiss was convicted of perjury. He was innocent! The Rosenbergs were executed. They were framed! Mary Mapes and Dan Rather were fired. Their Texas Air National Guard story was a model of investigative journalism! Socialism has killed more than 100 million people, and impoverished countless more. Let’s give it another try!

I don’t think conservatives can assume (as we could for decades) that socialism is beyond the pale in the U.S., and that a candidate to whom the “socialist” label can be pinned is doomed. Conservative candidates are going to have to argue the case, assuming that most Americans know so little about history that they have an open mind on the merits of socialism. Voters need to be reminded that socialism in both forms–national socialism and Marxian socialism–has been a lethal disaster wherever it has been implemented. Venezuela is a good contemporary exemplar: do Americans want to emulate Venezuela, one of the most resource-rich countries in the world, where after 16 years of socialism you can’t buy toilet paper at any price, and shoppers knife one another to get their hands on groceries?

From the comments: Leftist equality: everybody is equal, the ruling elite is more equal; everybody must pay their fair share of taxes, so the elites could take a fair share of your taxes. “Will’s next sentence encapsulates a deep, Madisonian truth:

“The fundamental producer of income inequality is freedom.”

There you have it, folks, a lapidary sentence that is as true as it is often forgotten. “The fundamental producer of income inequality is freedom.” If you have freedom, you will also have inequality. It’s part of the natural order of things. (Snip)

Frankfurt has intelligent things to say about that, too, but let me close by returning to my main point: that, rhetoric notwithstanding, the Left hates, is determined to root out freedom wherever it may thrive, and that is why they hate the free market (never mind that it has made us all richer) and it is also why they have made fools of themselves enacting speech codes, “trigger warnings,” and all the other Orwellian paraphernalia of intellectual tyranny on campuses across the country. The rise of the miso-Leftists — and I am not talking about soy-based politics, but one based upon hatred — also helps to explain the sudden emergence of counter insurgencies like the phenomenon of Donald Trump, but that is a matter for another day and, besides, understanding that the Left (no matter what they say to the contrary) is the enemy of freedom is lesson enough for one day.” Why the Left Hates Freedom: If you have freedom, you will also have inequality.

The mainstream media will never tell you the true story of what’s really happening with their Shangri-La. “The socialist golden years weren’t so golden for economic performance. Entrepreneurship plummeted. Job creation and wages sputtered.

The Scandinavian story the past few decades has been a turn against socialism. Taxes have fallen, and markets have been liberalized. (Snip)

It became obvious that generous-enough welfare benefits can undermine the initiative of even the heartiest Scandinavian stock, and these countries have been adjusting accordingly. An article in the New York Times a couple of years ago recounted the backlash against welfare dependence in Denmark. It cited a study that projected in 2013 that only three of 98 municipalities would have a majority of residents working.” Why Socialists Shouldn’t Cite Sweden as Success

More on the real story of the Left’s Shangri-La. “The real key to Scandinavia’s unique successes isn’t socialism, it’s culture. Social trust and cohesion, a broad egalitarian ethic, a strong emphasis on work and responsibility, commitment to the rule of law — these are healthy attributes of a Nordic culture that was ingrained over centuries. In the region’s small and homogeneous countries (overwhelmingly white, Protestant, and native-born), those norms took deep root. The good outcomes and high living standards they produced antedated the socialist nostrums of the 1970s. Scandinavia’s quality of life didn’t spring from leftist policies. It survived them.

Sanandaji makes the acute observation that when Scandinavian emigrants left for the United States, those cultural attributes went with them and produced the same good effects. Scandinavian-Americans have higher incomes and lower poverty rates than the US average. Indeed, Danish-Americans economically outperform Danes still living in Denmark, as do Swedish-Americans compared with Swedes and Finnish-Americans compared with Finns. Scandinavian culture has been a blessing for native Scandinavians — and even more of one for their cousins across the ocean.

Where the Left vs. Right divide is taking us… “Here’s the good news: The chaos and upheaval we see all around us have historical precedents and yet America survived. The bad news: Everything likely will get worse before it gets better again.

That’s my chief takeaway from “Shattered Consensus,”a meticulously argued analysis of the growing disorder. Author James Piereson persuasively makes the case there is an inevitable “revolution” coming because our politics, culture, education, economics and even philanthropy are so polarized that the country can no longer resolve its differences. (Snip)

Piereson also considers possible ­elements of the next national consensus, including a renewed focus on growth instead of redistribution and a bid to depoliticize government.

But he is ultimately uncertain what will come next because we are far from reaching a consensus on almost anything. There are so many fault lines that the nation seems consumed by a conflict of all against all.

We’ve got a terrific line up for our annual Christmas program. First up will be the Ignite Barbershop Quartet. Ignite began singing together after a quartet matching party in November 2015. They are all Champion members of Region 21’s Scottsdale Chorus and they will be singing for us!

After lunch, Congressional District 6 congressman, Representative David Schweikart, will talk to us about what’s happening in Washington DC, and provide us with a status of the Tax Bill working its way through the House of Representatives and Senate.

Finally, member Julia Graham will install our new 2018/2019 officers. We look forward to seeing you and be sure to bring a friend or two or three!